Learn'd Astromoners
by mmmslash
Summary: Roy contemplates the stars and lost opportunities. RoyxEd


They were beautiful together. Roy wouldn't have ever expected himself to call Sciezka beautiful, but there it was. Her eyes sparkled under the thick glasses and her uncooperative brown hair bounced jovially as she nodded in response to something her companion had whispered to her. She really was a rather lovely young lady.

And Edward. The way the soft light filtering in from the glass ceiling of the observatory lit at his face and the way he shot sneaky glances to the shy girl at his right made him positively alluring. His right hand - his automail one - was wrapped around Sciezka's and she would occasionally rest her head on his shoulder.

Roy heard Sciezka quote some ancient alchemic text and it appeared that Edward was going to burst from wanting to launch into a happy tirade but was shushed by someone else in the small room.

Twenty-odd people sat on the floor around the curved walls of the domed observatory room. The glass ceiling above revealed a beautiful night for star-gazing, with dustings of small white specks and clusters of larger ones that seemed to sparkle, but not as much as Sciezka's eyes when she pointed out the milky tail of a meteor to her companion. Edward smiled and moved his hand onto her knee.

Roy tried to distract himself by placing a small kiss on the cheek of his date.

That afternoon had crept along as slowly as the morning and just as he had been gathering up his stuff to leave, a soft knock drew Roy's eyes to his door.

"It's open."

A flushed, blond face had peered inside.

"Ah, Fullmetal. Do come in."

"Sorry I didn't come earlier," he had said, scratching anxiously at the back of his neck. "I got tied up outside, then had a lunch appointment. Anyway, here's my report. If you need anything else, you know where to find me."

"You're not dismissed yet, Fullmetal."

Edward had sighed, but plopped down on the couch in front of Roy's desk. "What now?"

"I just want to look this over while you are here in case anything needs clarification."

Roy had frowned, but managed to twist it into a smirk before it drew suspicion. It bothered him that he strove to find ways to keep Edward in his office for as long as possible these days. He didn't know what he expected to happen. He wasn't even sure what he _wanted_ to happen.

"This, ah, rebel you call him, did he operate elsewhere before he went to Smithwell?"

Edward had snorted. "I _tell_ you in the report. He had actually come from Lior. Can I go? I have somewhere to be tonight."

"Ah," Roy had said, "a hot date with a lady friend?"

Edward had shrugged. "I guess. Sciezka wanted to go to the observatory tonight. She was telling me about this old almanac she had read that predicted some good meteor showers this week."

Roy had nodded sagely. "Very romantic, Fullmetal. I had thought," he lowered the report and stared through his dark lashes, uniquely aware of his props, "that 'romantic' wasn't your thing?"

Edward had frowned and flailed his arms a bit. "It's not romantic. It's _scientific_."

"Of course."

"So can I leave now?"

Roy had lowered the report onto his desk. "Is this the Central Observatory or are you heading out of town? I believe that sounds like a rather romantic idea and would consider taking a friend there myself, if the showers are to be as good as your friend suggests."

"No way. I'm not going on a double date with you, bastard."

"I have no interests in such things. I merely wanted to show a friend to a nice evening under the stars."

Edward had hmphed. "And what bra size does this _friend_ wear anyway? Must be pretty big for you to spring for something like this," he said with a venomous grin.

"Gentlemen do not kiss and tell. But I'm sure you're well aware of this," Roy had retorted, lowering his eyes to glare at the young man in front of him. Edward knew well enough Roy's policy on confidentiality.

"Yeah, yeah. We're going to the Central Observatory," he had surrendered. "I guess we'll see you there."

"It's a date," Roy had replied with a grin.

Edward had muttered as he slammed the door behind him.

It was so damned hard to pay attention to the speaker. Why did something as romantic as star-gazing have to turn into a scientific lecture? Roy shot a glance over his right shoulder, sneaky, to the boy sitting next to him. Edward seemed enthralled with the evening. Romance could wait for him. Romance always had. It had always been secondary to the boy. Secondary to filling his brain, or satisfying his stomach, or scratching whatever itch he may have.

Roy slid an arm around his dates shoulders (_Janet? Jaime? Janine?_) and attempted to drone out the sound of the lecturer and make up his own constellations in his head. See, that one there at about 95 degrees? That one was the great hunting bear who knew when to fight to the death and when to let his prey go.

Roy sympathized with the imagined bear of his invented mythology. He too knew how to let his prey go - as soon as breakfast was over and you could claim work as an excuse to leave. What he didn't know was what to do when your prey waltzed its clumsy way into your house, your bed, your kitchen and left those damnable blond hairs sticking to every surface, winding their way into every sweater. Roy could even swear that he had seen one clinging to the radio antenna on his car on the way to work one day.

Janine grinned at him softly. Ah, the speaker must have said something romantic. Roy placed another chaste kiss on her cheek and squeezed her shoulder.

And that one, about 10 degrees above the Hunter Bear was a great blue heron, setting his wings to flight. This blue heron, he was wiser than Hunter Bear. He knew that Hunter Bear approached and still he grazed at water's edge, poking his head gracefully at passing fish. How he killed with such attractive elegance. And just as Hunter Bear readied for attack, Great Blue cawed mockingly and took to flight. Great Blue was wise beyond his years.

Roy heard Edward whisper to Sciezka. She giggled softly and recited a bit of poem. "When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me..."

Then something brushed the smallest finger of his right hand.

"Damn it, bastard, knock it off."

"What am I doing?"

"That. With the hands. Stop it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like it. Knock it off."

Roy sighed and withdrew his hands from their nest at the base of fine blond hairs on Edward's neck.

"You just felt tense is all."

"Of course I'm tense. You won't keep your hands to yourself!"

Roy sighed again and rolled his eyes. "Would you prefer I sit on the floor so I don't accidentally touch you?"

Edward shrugged. "This is fine."

Roy grinned, pushed himself off the couch and dropped his dead weight on Edward's lap. The younger man emptied his lungs with a loud whooshing noise.

"Get off! You're heavy!"

"Only if you promise to let me rub your neck later," Roy said, slipping his right arm around Edward's shoulders and lightly tapping his fingers at the nape of the boy's neck.

Edward exhaled a long-suffering sigh. "...Fine."

The presenter continued to drone on the subject of meteor composition, Sciezka continued to quote poetry ("Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself..."), and that insistent, warm pressure on his little finger continued to ignite prickles at the base of Roy's tail bone and work their way upwards.

How long had it been? Far, far too long for that rough flesh to feel this familiar. Far too long for the memories to ram into his head like a meteor, all full of metallic scent and flashes of red and gold.

Roy darted midnight eyes at his date. She squished up her pretty features into a decidedly unpretty smile. With his unoccupied left hand, he pointed at a meteor he pretended to have seen, distracting her long enough to steal a glance at the boy seated beside him. Roy was met with the back of a blond head as Edward leaned over to whisper to Sciezka. Now his little finger was being caressed.

Roy rolled thoughts around inside his head. Thoughts about right and wrong and faithfulness. Thoughts about bears and herons and innocent bystanders. He thought about what it would be like for other patches of his skin to again feel what was being lavished upon his smallest finger.

See that over there? That constellation is a sailor's compass.

"I do believe we've been here before, once or twice. Give me the map. We should have been home many hours ago."

"No! I can find it. I just got turned around I think."

"Fine. But we're taking a rest first. I can't cross that damn river _three times_ in one afternoon."

"You're getting old, Roy."

Roy rolled his eyes and flopped down at the base of a tree. He'd had no trouble navigating himself across an ocean of landmark-less sand when he'd been stationed in the Ishbalan desert. How could the kid not orienteer their way out of a forest on a simple day hike?

Edward dropped himself down next to Roy and spread the map out in front of them.

"That's where we're going wrong," Roy said pointing to a spot toward the bottom of the map. "You have us turning west once we cross the river."

"So we should head east?"

Roy nodded and leaned his shoulder against Edward's.

"You look pretty good out of that uniform, Colonel," Edward said, looking down at his companion's worn blue jeans.

"Of course I do," Roy replied, his smirk returning for the first time since lunch.

"You know, since we figured out how to get back, we're not in any rush to get moving now," Edward said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Roy grinned and glanced down at the expansive map covering the brambles of forest floor, making a mental note that he would likely have to buy a new one when they were done with it.

Roy could hear something about speed of impact in one ear and something about "mystical moist night-air" in his other and they met up in the middle to tangle in a swirling mush that filled the rest of his mind with static.

His right hand was frozen in its spot on the ground as rough, young flesh lapped at its edges. Roy tried to catch Edward's eye but the boy would only bless the stars and Sciezka with his gaze. Janet (_or Janine?_) twittered at his side and flicked her tongue against his earlobe.

"This is boring," she whispered. "Let's go home."

"Shh," he said.

Janet-Janine frowned but leaned her head against his shoulder.

And then there was a full twining of pinkies. The warm rough length of a young, battle-weary digit wrapped itself around the smooth pale pinky protected by gloves for so many years. They didn't meet eyes; it was all so unnecessary. Roy was trapped and he didn't want out.

And that constellation, children, is the hangman's noose.

His throat constricted and it got hard to breathe.

"Why not?" he asked.

Edward shrugged. "I dunno. I'm just bored with it."

Roy attempted to contain his reaction. Was this the first time he'd been turned down? At the moment, he couldn't remember.

"I see."

Why would Edward not want to meet up again tonight? They'd met up every night for the past two months. Why should this night be different?

"I trust you will otherwise busy yourself this weekend?"

Edward nodded. "You remember Sciezka, the girl Hughes hired from the Central Library? She's in town and was talking about some place downtown with really good noodle soup."

And so Edward was able to break it off as casually as he had started it. He really was only a boy then. Fifteen, was it? Roy supposed it was easier to flit around at that age. Attachment was something designed for the old who struggled to cling to youthful things.

"Well," Roy said, passing some coinage toward the boy, "have dessert on me."

He had meant the gesture to be fatherly, but in retrospect, thought perhaps it had come across as bitter. Perhaps it was.

Roy had tried to not think about the boy (Was it 'boy' still? He was eighteen now, wasn't he?). And for the most part, he hadn't. It had never meant much, merely release. But now their hands were fully entwined and it felt as if they were taking in the evening together. The lecture, the romanticism, the whole package. It was comfortable, like it had been before. Casual, like always.

Sciezka, still looking happy and beautiful, finished her remembered poem on the other side of Edward: " And from time to time, look'd up in perfect silence at the stars."


End file.
